2017 Grants Announcement: Blurb Text and Links

We are delighted to announce our 2017 grants in support of the Philadelphia region’s cultural organizations and artists. This year, more than $10.3 million in funding supports 12 Pew Fellowships for artists working in a variety of disciplines, 39 Project grants for the presentation of exceptional, creative programming and events, and 2 Advancement grants to implement catalytic initiatives led by exemplary institutions. Together, our grant recipients represent the breadth and vibrancy that make Greater Philadelphia a compelling destination for cultural experiences. Browse the full list of grantees below.

2017 Grants Announcement: Jump Links

2017 Grants Announcement: Pew Fellows Carousel

Pew Fellowships

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2017 Grants Announcement: Pew Fellows List

2017 marks the Center’s 25th year of providing direct support to local artists, with awards of $75,000 each. This year’s Fellows include artists working in film and media, poetry and writing, performance, visual art, landscape architecture, and interdisciplinary practices.

Julia BlochPoetBloch’s lyric and prose poems blend the personal and the political to, she says, “negotiate tensions between individual forms of expression and webs of social meaning.”

Nichole CanusoChoreographer and performerCanuso’s choreographic practice spans genres and experiments with the participation of audience bodies, personal narratives, and what she describes as “the kinesthetic intellect.”

Brenda Dixon GottschildWriter and scholarDixon Gottschild’s 50-year career as a writer and cultural scholar surveys the presence and influence of the black dancing body in America, in what she calls “choreography for the page.”

M. Nzadi KeitaPoetWeaving intricate narratives with historical research and vivid imagery, Keita describes her lyrical and prose poetry as “photographic writing,” using “voice as a vessel to offer images to the reader.”

Anuradha Mathur & Dilip da CunhaLandscape architectsThe collaborative work of Mathur and da Cunha imagines new possibilities for design of the built environment and explores the lines separating land and water, and urban and rural environments.

Moon MolsonFilmmakerMolson’s films examine urban masculinity and portray the stories of people of color, capturing the humor and lyricism of, in his words, “the language of the streets."

Tayarisha PoeMedia artistPoe creates multifaceted portraits of young people of color in work that blends film, photography, and prose across media platforms.

Wilmer Wilson IVVisual artistWorking across mediums, including performance, sculpture, collage, video, photography, and installation, Wilson explores the nature and social value of ephemera and bodily presence in public spaces.

2017 Grants Announcement: Project Grants Carousel

Project Grants

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2017 Grants Announcement: Project Grants List

Project grants for events, exhibitions, and performances are awarded in amounts up to $300,000, with additional unrestricted funds added for general operating costs, and support exceptional cultural programs and experiences presented by Philadelphia-area artists and organizations, for a wide range of audiences.

African American Museum in PhiladelphiaAAMP Residency for Art and Social ChangeA pilot artist residency program for emerging black artists engages with the Olney neighborhood of North Philadelphia and responds to current social issues through the interpretation of AAMP’s collections.

Asian Arts Initiative (ex)CHANGE: History Place PresenceSix temporary public artworks across Philadelphia, created by a multidisciplinary group of Asian American artists, reflect on the city’s diverse narratives and changing neighborhoods.

Madhusmita BoraThreads of History: Resurrection of a TextileClassical Indian dance, performed by the Dancing Monks of Assam, brings to life the stories embedded in an ancient textile from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

BowerbirdSound Material: Kagel's Zwei Mann OrchesterThe US premiere of a large-scale sound sculpture, conceived by late composer and artist Mauricio Kagel, explores the interplay between sound and object, performance and sculpture.

Bryn Mawr CollegeGardens Speak and other works by Tania El KhouryThe immersive installation work of Lebanese artist Tania El Khoury is highlighted in a multi-part performance project that shares the narratives of Syrian citizens and refugees and addresses displacement, oppression, and justice.

The Clay StudioMaking Place MatterIn conjunction with its relocation to South Kensington, The Clay Studio’s collaboration with area community members generates an inaugural exhibition plan focused on the theme of place.

Christ Church Preservation TrustInaugural Commission for the Christ Church Organ (working title)A new composition by Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen, performed by the highly acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), activates Christ Church’s historic campus and celebrates the installation of a new custom-built pipe organ.

The CrossingAniaraThe Crossing choir and Finnish theater company Klockriketeatern collaborate to produce the world premiere of a hybrid choral-theater work, composed by Guggenheim and Pew Fellow Robert Maggio.

Drexel University Westphal CollegePhiladelphia Museum of DanceA large-scale performance event on the grounds of The Barnes Foundation, co-curated by acclaimed French choreographer Boris Charmatz, examines the presentation of public performance in relationship to the exhibition of visual art objects.

Eastern State PenitentiaryHidden Lives, IlluminatedStories from inside America’s correctional system are brought to light through four newly commissioned, animated short films, projected onto Eastern State Penitentiary’s 30-foot facade.

Historical Society of PennsylvaniaAudience EmbeddedMembers of Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community interpret the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and Taller Puertorriqueño, in order to contribute to the development of new programming centered on the community’s experiences in Philadelphia, past and present.

Elizabeth HustonKLANGPioneering composer Karlheinz Stockhausen’s KLANG is experienced in a daylong series of 21 chamber music compositions, each written to represent an hour of the day.

Independence Seaport MuseumEngaging Contemporary Artists at Independence Seaport MuseumArtist and Pew Fellow Teresa Jaynes leads an inquiry into the potential of a contemporary art-making program to increase audience engagement with the Seaport Museum and deepen the public’s understanding of the region’s waterways.

Institute on Disabilities at Temple UniversityDiscovering the Selinsgrove CenterAn artist residency model takes shape in this public history project designed to illuminate the first-person narratives of people with intellectual disabilities and their experiences of institutionalization at Selinsgrove Center in Central Pennsylvania.

John JarboeThe Poison Cookie JarAn interactive, web-based mapping project documents the rich history and contemporary practice of cabaret around the world with artist interviews, video, music, and historical texts.

Kimmel Center for the Performing ArtsTaylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music In its Philadelphia premiere, Taylor Mac’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated performance work journeys through 240 years of US history and popular songs, staged in two 12-hour installments.

Kun-Yang Lin/DancersFaith ProjectA new dance work contemplates the relationship between religious practice and contemporary dance, taking inspiration from exchanges with an interfaith group of community participants.

Trey LyfordThe AccountantThis visual theater work blends vaudeville routines, illusion, origami, and kinetic set elements to tell the story of a life remembered and the frailty of human experience.

Philadelphia Folklore ProjectWomen of New KlezmerA concert of new klezmer compositions, written and performed by three generations of women, brings contemporary meaning to a traditional, Eastern European, Jewish folk music form.

Philadelphia Photo Arts CenterThe Women's Mobile Museum with Zanele MuholiSouth African photographer Zanele Muholi creates a mobile exhibition space and engages with 10 Philadelphia women in telling their own stories through self-portraits and portraits of women in the participants’ lives.

Please Touch MuseumAmerica to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and FarThis exhibition combines art, technology, performance, and interactive programming to introduce young children and their families to local and global Muslim communities and culture.

jumatatu m. poeLet 'im Move You: This Is a FormationA new performance work draws from the J-Sette dance form, examining “team” in performance and exploring the rhythms of pop and club music.

Kayla RombergerPublishing As PracticeThree experimental art publishers explore publishing as an incubator for new forms of editorial, curatorial, and artistic practice in a residency program based in Philadelphia’s Ulises bookshop.

Lenny SeidmanARCAn evening-length performance suite brings together the drumming traditions of tabla from North India and taiko from Japan with contemporary dance and Japanese butoh.

Swarthmore College Friends, Peace, and SanctuaryBook artists working with Iraqi and Syrian refugees create artists’ books that amplify personal narratives of displacement, immigration, and sanctuary.

Thomas Jefferson UniversityBuilding Empathy Through the ArtsArtists, medical students, and people living with dementia and their caregivers engage in an arts-based process of empathy-building and storytelling that culminates in a performance about what it means to heal and be healed.

2017 Grants Announcement: Advancement Grants Carousel

2017 Grants Announcement: Advancement Grants List

Advancement grants are multiyear investments designed to support catalytic initiatives led by exemplary arts and culture organizations in the Greater Philadelphia region.

Penn Museum, University of PennsylvaniaAdvancement GrantNew approaches to exhibition design, public programming, and communications enrich visitors’ understanding of human history through the museum’s collection of more than one million objects.

Settlement Music SchoolAdvancement GrantNew curricula, teaching methods, and communications strategies respond to the evolving nature of today’s learning styles in order to attract and retain students at Settlement Music School.

2017 Grants Announcement: Photo Credits

Photo Credits

Taylor Mac, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, “Decade 3 (1796-1806).” Photo by Teddy Wolff.

Yael Bartana, And Europe Will Be Stunned, 2007-2011, film still from Zamach (Assassination), 2011. Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Walker Art Center.

The Summer Winter Community Garden at 32nd and Summer Streets in Philadelphia, a community garden supported through Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.